Whodunit?
by LittleTee
Summary: A mystery of Warehouse 13 and Eureka standards unfolds around Claudia and Fargo when they are transported to an abandoned mansion for a one night party with a strange cast of characters. Claudia/Fargo
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. I'm not stealing anything. Just taking the characters out for a walk...

**Prologue**

Somewhere on the back roads of Eureka, a white van was slowly making its way through to a destination only known to the GPS device mounted on the dashboard by a generous amount of duck tape. The GPS was the only thing illuminating the dark interior of the makeshift delivery van, which cast an eerie blue glow onto the driver.

The driver was the usual college undergrad living off whatever financial aid he could get, and grabbing side jobs wherever he could; namely jobs that paid in cash on delivery. To his chagrin, he had no luck finding any such jobs, so he had done what any aspiring student would do: he started his own business of delivering secure discreet packages for certain unnamed individuals who did not want any kind of paper trail, which suited him perfectly well. That is, until tonight.

He had of course delivered many weird packages in the past year since he had started his business, but this delivery won the prize for utmost weirdness. From the man, or at least he thought it was a man (it was hard to tell in that dark abandoned old factory); he was given six packages marked with unique color coded dots as their only label. Although, a grand per box was still a sweet deal, and helped quiet his nerves, if only a little bit.

"Only one more stop to make," he reminded himself while trying to relax his tight grip on the steering wheel. He tried to take his mind off of the feeling of impending doom that clung to the air like stale cigarette smoke since he had taken this job by concentrating on his driving and paying close attention to his GPS directions. He give a breath of relief when he saw a sign denoting that was entering into the small town of Eureka. Then, out of nowhere, the little animated road that was highlighted on his GPS vanished from view.

"What the…? What just happened?" He slammed on the brakes, reached for the small GPS and hastily tried to get the gadget to recognize that he wasn't in a forest with no roads, but on a paved road on the outskirts of a town. But his efforts were lost on the small device, and he was still completely on his own. He slouched back against the back of his seat with his eyes closed as he took a few controlled breaths attempting again to calm his nerves.

"Guess I'm on my own," he sighed resignedly as he took his foot off the brake and began to drive forward at a reasonable pace. _How many side streets would there be in this town, anyway?_ He mused to himself. _All I have to do is read the signs whenever I come to a cross road, piece of cake._

Two long hours later he had finally found his destination, and gratefully waltzed up the front walk and rang the bell.

"Who is it?" Called a voice from the other side of the door.

"Delivery for one Mr. Douglas Fargo of Eureka."

"It's _Doctor. _Doctor Douglas Fargo" corrected Fargo as he unlocked the door, and opened it. The driver shrugged lazily, and handed Fargo the unmarked package.

"Here ya go doc," he remarked before turning and walking back to his van.

"Don't I need to sign something?"

"Nah," the driver called back over his shoulder. "Just don't hurt yourself when you open it, doc."

Fargo stood there with the package in hand, watching as the driver drove off, and was filled with the overwhelming feeling that something bizarre was happening. He shrugged it off and went back inside, locking the door as he did so. However, instead of returning to his study, where he was currently toying with a few ideas regarding artificial intelligence, he leaned against the door and examined the package.

It was just the ordinary run-of-the-mill box, except it had no labels whatsoever. Unless one counted the small dark purplish dot on the box's lid, but then again what kind of label was that? Fargo was intrigued by what could be in the box, more so than its lack of decent labels, and opened it to reveal a rectangle wooden carved chest. The plain cardboard box fell to the floor forgotten.

The wooden chest had a phrase of what appeared to be Latin carved into it, or at least he was pretty sure it was Latin, ancient languages were never his strong suit. On the lid there was a carved image of an off-fashioned smoking pipe, and also adorned on the lid was the word 'Professor' above the pipe in modern English.

But, what really caught Fargo's eye was the small metal lock; it had the mathematical equation of pi etched on every millimeter of its surface. It started on the pin of the lock, and run clockwise outward getting a hair smaller at each decimal, creating a spiral of numbers to finally end where only concaved lines were visible to the naked eye. The box was, to Fargo's amazement, unlocked and easy to open, not even the hinges creaked as he opened it.

Now what was in the box almost made Fargo drop it like a hot potato. An old revolver laid within folds of a dark purple velvet cloth that lined the interior of the chest. The revolver glistened as if it weren't but a day old, although it was clear that this gun had been crafted more than fifty years ago. The handle didn't have a scratch or blemish anywhere. In of itself the pistol was beautiful, but being in the chest with the velvet cloth hugging its every metallic curve, the sight was hypnotizing.

Even against his common sense, Fargo pried the gun free of its housing, and held it in his hand studying the metallic object. The last thing Fargo remembered was the cold, marble feel of the gun's handle before he, and the world, faded away.

Meanwhile, miles and miles away in Leena's Bed and Breakfast, Claudia Donovan fell into the comfort of the leather sofa that resided in the boarding house's living room. She let out a low moan of pleasure as all the stiffness and strain slowly drained out of her body. The overtime of re-inventorying all the new artifacts into the new system had taken its toll on the tech teen.

Even though with all the ease and user-friendliness of the new interface that Douglas Fargo had designed and installed into the Warehouse's computer system; the task of re-entering (aka fixing) the latest artifacts' data into the system was still a chore to be feared.

"Remind me to hurt you when I - correction - _if_ I live through this." Claudia remarked, sensing that Leena entered the room.

"Hmm…" Leena commented while taking her seat in the wing-back chair adjacent to the sofa that Claudia had taken over. "Inventory duty again?"

"Yes, and Artie was being his gloomy self again. I'm so beginning to hate Halloween" Claudia replied. Since she had joined the team last year, she had been told how after Labor Day no one was to be alone in the Warehouse until after October thirty-first. Something about the supernatural forces that were emitted during the Halloween season, and its adverse effects on multiple artifacts throughout the Warehouse. Or, at least that was what Leena had told her.

Artie had scoffed at the 'supernatural' part of Leena's reasoning, but on the same note did agree that during this time the Warehouse did take on an eerie aspect to everything.

Claudia loved the spirit of mystery and the supernatural that seems to be everywhere during this time of year. But recently her childlike love for All Hallow's Eve was beginning to dwindle. That could be expected after spending twelve hours collecting artifacts that had moved from their secure areas to random areas throughout the Warehouse. Artifacts that she had to re-detoxify, and re-enter into the system's database. And it was always the scarier artifacts out of the whole bunch would be the ones jumping around the shelves and vast rooms.

"I have hot chocolate on the stove, care for some?" Leena asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I would."

Leena got up and was heading in the direction of the kitchen when she turned and said "Then remove your feet from my sofa. Sit up."

"Yes, _mom"_ Claudia quipped, moving her hands for emphases, but otherwise still lying with one leg on the floor and the other thrown across the armrest with her eyes closed. She slowly opened her eyes as she sat up, seeing for the first time since she landed on the sofa what had been beside her on the coffee table. A cardboard box was sitting on the coffee table with a yellow post-it note stuck to its side. She pulled off the post-it, reading the scribbled note that Pete had left her:

_Claudia, this came in the mail for you._

_You owe me twenty bucks._

_- Pete_

Claudia rolled her eyes at the lame joke about the twenty dollars, which was a running gag between her and Pete. She placed the post-it to the side and examined the box. It was unmarked, except for the red dot on the side. She opened the cardboard box, withdrawing the rectangular wooden chest and revealing carvings of a big willow tree and the word 'Miss' on the chest's lid, and a Latin phrase etched into the box.

But what was etched onto the lock caught her attention as she ran her finger over the engraving of all known alphabets from all over the world translated into binary language. The spiral of repeating 0s and 1s eventually became so minute in size, that only lines remained until not even a scratch could be seen.

Claudia opened the chest, part of her expecting a thing of exotic candies from Todd, but what was held within the chest's rich red velvet fabric was a golden candlestick that shined vibrantly. She let out a low whistle as she reached for the shining object before her.

"Got your hot chocolate. Do you want any marshmallows?" Leena asked as she entered the living room carrying a tray with two big mugs of hot chocolate. She stopped dead in her tracks. Leena did _not_ like the bad vibrations that were emitted from the chest, she couldn't place her finger on it, but something wasn't right. The aura coming from the chest was disturbing, and the underlying energy field that vibrated with negative emotions didn't comfort her in the least. Something evil was associated with that box, Leena knew it.

"Claudia?"

"Huh, what is it?"

"I'm getting a bad feeling about that chest," Leena ventured, still holding the tray, the steam from the hot chocolate slowly drifting off the surface of each cup. "I haven't seen it before, where did you find it?"

"It came in the mail," Claudia answered, her attention glued to the candlestick. She gradually began to stroke the golden object as she pondered aloud, "I wonder where the other candlestick is. Don't candlesticks usually come in pairs?"

"In the past, yes; however, recently it's not uncommon to find only one candlestick, instead of a pair" Lena replied absentmindedly as she looked over Claudia's shoulder at the object in question. The shining of its surface seemed to drain all other thoughts from her mind.

Leena physically tried to shake herself free from whatever was trying to take over her thoughts, but she was still under its spell and helpless to prevent what came next.

Claudia, caught in the hypnotizing spell of the metal object, reached into the chest and pulled out the candlestick mesmerized by the feel of the cold inert metal against her skin. Her last memory of this world was tracing the brim of the cup of the candlestick, designed to hold the candle firmly in place, and wondering to herself why they was no evidence of wax residue when everything around faded into pure whiteness.

Leena blinked as she began to gain her thoughts once more. Claudia was gone, vanished into thin air. She tried to remain calm as she moved to the chest that now lay closed on the table. "It's locked" she muttered after she tried to pry the chest open, to no avail. She turned from the chest and the empty sofa, and ran up the stairs to find Artie.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Many grateful thanks to Gothandthegleek for beta-ing this for me. This is a fic I have been wanting to do since last year, but keep putting off. Mainly to get my other fics on a regular update schedule, but sadly that plan didn't go anywhere fast. So, my _new _plan is to update _this_ fic every two-three weeks. (I may post sooner if I have the time, and the update is ready to post.) While every week update one of my other stories till there are complete.

**_Chapter One will be posted around the 15th. . ._**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **The following characters are not mine. (Except for Lenny, George, and Joe.) The rest I'm just borrowing for a bit and will return them after I'm done. *Insert evil fan-girl laughter here.

**Chapter 1 **

Claudia Donovan yawned as she slowly awoke from her sleep. The over whelming noise of a persistent alarm forcing her to leave the confines of her deep sleep.

"Five more minutes Artie. Then I'll finish the inventory." Claudia murmured to herself turning over and reaching for her pillow. She stilled when she couldn't find her pillow and her body began to tell her that she was lying on something extremely hard and warm and not her bed. Claudia – now wide awake – slowly opened her left eye and studied her surroundings carefully.

_No bad guys with guns. That's always a good sign. . . Or, they are behind me. Am I tired up? _Claudia glanced down to her arms as she slowly moved her arms. Just in case there were bad guys behind her. It was always better to play possum then to actually end up dead. _Okay not tired up. Time for a reality check: its morning and I'm in the open, nowhere near the Warehouse or Leena's. How in Tesla's name did I get way out here? _Claudia frowned as she tried to remember, but the only memory was a flash of a golden candlestick.

Claudia sat straight up and looked around her quickly as she got to her feet. There was no bad guys, or anyone for that matter, within sight. She was on a two line road with no shoulders with nothing but trees lining either side and within a few feet from a Red 1947 Ford Coupe convertible with its hood up. What she had perceived as an alarm she could now make out as a loud car horn that was stuck, but it wasn't coming from the car before her. Other than that all was quite. Not a cricket chirp, nor a frog's ribbit, nor a bird's call. She was all alone.

Claudia surveyed her surroundings again this time slower. The two lane road seemed to stretch on to infinity in both directions. There were no other cars, or mailboxes, driveways, or homes in sight. Just the road and the forest along side it, the coupe, and her.

_But if I am alone then why do I feel like someone is watching me. _Claudia subdued the urge to shudder and began to walk to the coupe when something hit her foot. Claudia stopped, lifted her foot and looked down. There lying near where she had been lying in the road a second ago was a small red lady's evening purse. Claudia reached down and collected the small bag.

"Okay where did you come from?" Claudia asked aloud to herself as she examined the small handbag. It was designed in an old fashion, probably from the late forties or early fifties, but the condition of the bag was near mint quality. Inside it held a set of keys, a lipstick, a compact mirror, a nail filer, three sticks of chewing gum, a compact comb, and a folded invitation with no envelop. Claudia took the invitation unfolded it and read it:

To find the clues you are searching for come to Devil's Lair this Friday the thirteenth at sunset.  
>Solve the rhyme to clear the storm that hinders one's mind.<br>Even after the aftermath is all accounted for the one  
>and only way back is to relive the night at eight and midnight.<br>Don't be late or you will stay here forever more.

"Okay, I have landed in spooky-vile." Claudia refolded the invite and struck it back into the little red purse. "It's almost like being in a bad horror movie." Claudia commented again shaking her head. _I'm not liking this. This has big, bad scary artifact influence written all over this._ She walked over to the coupe.

Claudia paused when she made it to the car. Her reflection in the windshield of the car made her go positively still. She looked down at her outfit. She was wearing a long red dress that reached her mid-calf, with one long silt to her mid-thigh, silk stockings (if she wasn't mistaken), high heel red & white matching Mary Janes, an old fashion red hat with black lace accents, and her hair was rolled in a 1940's style as well.

Her jewelry consisted of a necklace and a pair of matching ruby earrings. The necklace was made of sliver with white gold accents on the chain and the pendant that not only highlighted the necklace but also Claudia's eyes as well. The pendant was a sliver metal-cast of a willow tree with tiny ruby stones dotted amongst the branches denoting blossoms about to bloom. Her earrings were in the shape of a willow branch with four ruby flower buds in the form of a pyramid. Claudia suspected that if she had the set appraised it would be wroth enough to buy her a new Aston Martin and have change left over for a new laptop, tablet and cellphone.

Claudia shook her head trying to figure out why she hadn't noticed this before when she let out a gasp as her hand flew instinctively to her neck. She had been hit with something, and she had a bad feeling it wasn't from an angry insect. She frowned as she noticed blood on her hand. She madly looked around but still saw no one about.

_If this is a drug I hope it's just a Mickey Finn and not cyanide. _She held her breath waiting to see what would happen next. Ready to give her best in a fight if anyone showed while she was still conscious. Which she knew was highly unlikely.

About a moment had passed from something hitting Claudia's neck to when she first felt the onset of pain mixed with blurry vision with a tickling feeling to her head. She could feel something else happening in the back of her mind. It took Claudia a second before she realize the sensation. She was literally feeling her memories being drained away from her. The chemical she had been injected with was causing pain to every fiber of her being. She grabbed hold of her head and tried to live through it.

If she wasn't in the open and nowhere near a mental and behavioral facility she would have sworn that she was beginning electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) again. This felt so much like it, but this time she wasn't sedated with muscle relaxants or restrained with health care professionals nearby monitoring her status.

She was alone in the middle of nowhere.

Claudia gritted her teeth as she reminded herself that she had live through something like this before, and still retained the majority of her memories, she could do it again. She just wished the blasted horn would be silent!

She hoped she could remember as she slumped down to her knees resting her head against the car's door, or that she would wake up. Then there was a brief moment of reprieve from the onslaught of pain, but experience told her that this was just the eye of the storm. With that knowledge she applied a trick that she had used while she was a patient at a mental health hospital. It had helped then why not now?

All she needed to do was find one thought and hold onto it with all her might. That was easier said than done for alarmingly she couldn't find a memory or thought to hold on to long enough without it falling away from her mental grasp. By now Claudia was desperate.

Then it hit her. _I'll just borrow a memory!_ Claudia grinned in sprite of the pain and held on to the one small memory that she had shared with someone.

"Thanks Doug," Claudia whispered as she fall into unconscious replaying the time where he and she had first meet in the Warehouse.

* * *

><p>"Is it done?"<p>

The delivery man slowly approached the source of the voice. "Yes. All six packages were delivered without a problem."

"Excellent work Joe."

Joe paused and took a step back. The way his client had pronounced excellent reminded him of some cartoon villain from his childhood. He just couldn't place which one. He was definitely not having good vibes on this. No not at all. "Well, I'm glad that you're satisfied with the service, but where is the other half of my agreed fee?" he silently added to himself, _I got mid-terms to study for._

"Yes. Yes, of course." Replied the cloaked figure that lurked in the shadows of the old warehouse that was the basis of the delivery drivers home headquarters. "Here is the agreed amount."

Joe was relived that his client hadn't decided to kill the messenger so to speak. _I need to stop doing this kind of delivery. My nerves can't keep up._ He accepted the envelope and counted the money. "Thanks mister. If you ever need a discrete delivery service again just give me a call."

The cloaked figure let out a small chuckle as he took a step closer to the college student. "I will definitely keep that in mind," and he raised his right hand in an offer of a handshake.

Joe didn't usually like to shake hands as a rule, but decided that there wasn't anything wrong in doing it now. Joe would find out how wrong he was.

Joe extended his hand and before he could let go or shake the client had grasped Joe's hand in both of his. "Hey what gives?" Joe asked fear striking home for Joe.

"Nothing to be worried about. Consider this a tip." With that said the client's eye glowed an eerie gold and Joe felt a small electric charge flowing through him. Joe was still alive, but paralyzed. Unable to move or to think.

"Now, my dear boy you will not remember of thing of our meetings or that I had hired you to make deliveries. If anyone asks you about these deliveries you were making individual deliveries. That is to clarify, there was one client to each parcel to be delivered.

"You will have a slight recognition that three of the clients were women and the other three men. All various ages; one in his twenties, two in their thirties, and the last three in their forties or fifties. You will remember delivering the packages, and even turning down a customer because she freaked you out." Joe blinked twice still staring forward his right hand still grasped tightly in his former client's hands. "Oh, and one more thing. Since you have been such a good character, you will remember everything your teachers have taught and you will remember everything you have read for your mid-terms and finals.

"Now, you will stand here for fifteen minutes after I leave, and then you will resume your life. Remember give no thoughts at all to those six deliveries you delivered."

With that the figure released Joe's hand and left the warehouse. He grinned when he had reached the alleyway behind the old warehouse. He removed his left glove and rubbed the large ring that adorned his index finger.

"Take me home precious. I have a party to host and I mustn't be late." With that he vanished into the night air with only his laughter in his wake.

* * *

><p>"Uh, B.E.L.L.E. give me ten more minutes please." Fargo murmured to his artificial intelligent alarm clock he had created years ago before S.A.R.A.H.<p>

B.E.L.L.E. stood for a Bedroom's Early aLarm and Light-sensitive Enhanced alarm clock. Fargo let out a groan. The blaring of the alarm wasn't quieting, and he froze as his eyes flew open in realization. He wasn't at home in his bed, or even at his desk asleep over his keyboard, he was in a car with his face resting on the steering wheel. He had been out for God knows how long hitting the horn with his cheek. Thankfully when Fargo jerked upright the horn stopped its complaining.

He was in an old station wagon by the looks of it's interior. _Oh boy. What did I do now?_ Fargo asked himself looking out the windshield and windows of the car. Usually, with a little effort Fargo could surmise the events that lead to being someplace he shouldn't.

But this time the recreation of events was not happening. All he could remember was receiving a parcel that had an old gun inside. Then waking here. Fargo tried to recall any memories of how he got there in an old station wagon in apparently out of city limits since the nearby scenery gave no recognition to anywhere in Eureka.

Then as soon as he had thought about Eureka he couldn't remember what it looked like. He frowned as he fought to bring up a mental image of his hometown, or for that matter his home or GD. But what stopped him short was a tickling feeling in his head. Fargo shook his head and got out of the car and leaned on the hood perplexed.

"What is happening to me? I'm the head of GD... wait what is GD? A car company?" Fargo shook his head again mentally running through memories and trying to recall the memories again.

_Something must be altering my hippocampus and temporal lobes' main memory processing and recall functioning. _Fargo took a slow deep breath trying to regain some calmness to this alarming situation.

"Okay, so I'm losing my personal memory and maybe my mind. What would Jo do if this was happening to her? Aha, at least I remembered Jo."

_Yeah, but for how long? _His inner voice mocked. Fargo chose to ignore it and concentrate on the matter at hand.

"She would pick a specific memory with someone that she shared strong emotional bonds with, and she would keep her mind focused on that." Immediately he remembered Claudia and the minefield incident. Fargo coughed into his fist at the emotions that was conjured up with the memory of Claudia lying on top of him.

_Yep, that should do the trick. I should be able to remember that._

Then Fargo felt something hit his neck and before reaching the area of the sudden pain. He knelt down to the road. Blackness fighting to engulf his senses as he fought to hold on to the memory of Claudia. "Claudia," he breathed as he went under into the blackness of drug induced sleep.

After a minute two figures emerged out of thin air. They wore long black hooded cloaks that reached down to their ankles. Both had lowered their hoods as their materialized into the visual spectrum.

The man on the left was the taller of the two at 6'5", had a mustache, gray eyes and African American. While the man on the right was 5'8", no facial hair, brown eyes and Caucasian.

The man on the left stopped down and checked Fargo over.

"Lenny, you think he's out yet?"

"Yea George, he's out. Finally." Replied Lenny as he stood up again. "We better get him back in the car."

With that George walked over and with Lenny picked up Fargo and put him into the driver's seat again.

"Now, I wonder why these last two woke up so soon. No one else did that before." Lenny stated prompting himself on the car dusting off his hands.

"I don't like it either. Did you notice that both said the others name before passing out? Do they know each other? If so then we may need to tell the chief."

"No, I don't think we need to tell the chief about this. You know how he gets upset about stuff like this. Remember that time when we had those two British agents?"

George shivered at the memory. "Don't remind me Lenny. I still have nightmares about that."

"Then lets just position them again, and not say anything." Lenny closed the car door and turned around and took hold of his hood then paused. "After all George the memory inducers should take care of any recognition between them if they did know one another, and mind you I'm not saying they do, but if they did it shouldn't be a problem."

George shook his head and put on his hood which allowed him to dissolve into the air, becoming invisible to the naked eye. "I hope you're right Lenny. I hope you're right." George echoed as Lenny also donned the hood of invisibility.

* * *

><p>"What? What happened to Claudia?!" Artie asked getting to his feet. He had been at his desk doing manual reports and reviewing past cold cases when Leena had busted into his room exclaiming that Claudia had vanished.<p>

"She came in from working inventory and wanted some hot coco. I went to the kitchen and got some for us. When I came back to the parlor she had a wooden chest – " Leena stopped when she saw Artie throw up his hands to silence her.

"Calm down Leena. You're going too fast. Take a breath and then tell me – slowly – what happened to Claudia?"

Leena took a slow breath and concentrated on calming her heart. Artie was right. Usually she was very calm and collected in situations like this. That was one of the reasons why Mrs. Frederic had chosen her to run the B&B. "A package had been delivered for Claudia. It had a craved wooden chest that held a golden candlestick."

"A golden candlestick. It didn't have two candlesticks?" Artie asked lifting his glasses onto his forehead.

"No. Just one. Claudia even wondered where the other one was or if it did come in a pair."

"That could mean a paired artifact." Artie stated matter of factly to himself more than to Leena as he went for his trusty black bag. "Then what happened?" Artie prompted Leena while grabbing his coat, scarf and hat.

"She took out the candlestick from the chest and then she vanished in a white flash."

Artie frowned, "A white flash?" Leena nodded. "Any sound before, during or after?"

Leena paused then shook her head no.

"Not good. Not good at all." Artie paused and put his bag down and went to his closet. "Call Pete and Myka. Tell them what happened and that to either wrap up their case or drop it and come back here. Whichever is the fastest."

"What is it Artie?" Leena asked as she observed Artie take down box after box looking for something.

Artie didn't brother to look up from his search. "I fear somebody has forged a combination artifact from multiple artifacts."

Leena's mouth dropped open in shock. "But, that is not possible. How could anyone forge an artifact from other artifacts? The unstableness alone of multiple artifacts in one confined location could cause a bad supernatural implosion not to mention the conflict of powers when trying to combine abilities – "

"Yes, it is extremely dangerous but it is not impossible."

Leena turned to see Mrs. Frederic standing in the doorway of Artie's room. "Mrs. Frederic. When did you hear about Claudia?"

"The moment after it happened Leena." Mrs. Frederic walked into the room the chest that Claudia had received in her hands. "I too felt the aura of past heart-break and torment flood this Inn. I came as soon as I could but I was too late."

Artie had only paused momentary when Mrs. Frederic had first made her entrance before continuing with his search. "Tell Leena about the boxes of the inner worlds." Artie told Mrs. Frederic as he slowed his search when he got to one box marked 'Lewis'.

Mrs. Frederic glared at Artie before turning her attention to Leena.

"What is the boxes of the inner worlds?" Leena asked.

"I believe that we need to wait till agents Bering and Lattimer are here. It is a very long story and goes back to the days of the beginning of the first Warehouse."

Leena's eyes grew large and she nodded her head in understanding. "I'll page Pete and Myka now," and turned and left the room bringing out her Farnsworth.

"Wrong Lewis," Artie muttered to himself as he dropped the box onto the discard pile of boxes he had already gone through. He picked up another box that was labeled Lewis and began searching through it.

Mrs. Frederic walked over to Artie. "The chest is locked now. You know what that means."

Artie refused to listen to Mrs. Frederic. _There still has to be a way to get to Claudia._ _A side door or backdoor to where she had been taken to. Claudia always going on about that every site had a backdoor the trick was finding the key. Sure, she had meant in the virtual world of the internet but couldn't the same be said for reality? _It was a chance that Artie wasn't going to abandoned. Not yet at least.

Mrs. Frederic put the chest down and put her hand on Artie's shoulder. "Arthur. We can't help her by going to where she is. That portal is closed."

Artie closed his eyes. "Yes, I know." He sighed and looked at the box before him once more. "But, just because the main portal is closed doesn't mean a back portal isn't open."

"Arthur, you are not considering what I think you are considering. The idea is not feasible. The inner-woods has been unstable for years and the portals are not labeled." Mrs. Frederic paused as she observed Artie take out the small hand-craved chest from the box in his hands. "And, we have no indication where she has been taken. There are over 144,000 worlds. We have to try to help Claudia on this world."

Artie pocketed the chest and turned to Mrs. Frederic. "Don't worry Mrs. Frederic I'm not a new agent. I am not going off half-cocked without a plan."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"But on the first chance we get she is coming home. Even if I have to go and get her myself. I'm not letting Claudia be lost, not again." Artie sighed. "I gave my word to look after her, and even though I missed up the first time I'm not making that error again."

Mrs. Frederic nodded her head in understanding. "Come on. The Warehouse is more suitable for this."

_End of Chapter 1._

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note<strong>: Well sorry for the delay. Life happened and I had the hardest time getting back on track. I'm making no promises about updates, but I am hoping to do better this time around. Please do leave a note if you've read this far.


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